1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to agricultural implements, and, more particularly, to agricultural implements utilizing precision farming techniques.
2. Description of the Related Art
Agricultural planters are commonly used implements to plant seeds in soil. An agricultural planter can include a chassis that carries one or more storage tanks carrying seed, and chemical applications that are to be applied to the field during the planting operation, a hitch mechanism that attaches to a tractor or other implement pulled by a tractor, and a tool bar that row units can be connected to so they are carried by the chassis. The planter can also include a pneumatic system carried by the chassis that supplies pressurized air to transport the seeds or other particulate from the storage tanks to the row units.
Each row unit of the agricultural planter places seeds in the field. Typically, the row units are laterally arranged along a length of the tool bar so that as the planter is pulled across the field, each row unit plants seeds at predefined intervals along the path it is pulled across. To plant seeds, the row units perform four main operations as they are pulled: opening a trench in the soil; placing a seed into the formed trench at appropriate intervals; closing the formed trench to put soil on top of the placed seed; and packing soil on top of the seed to provide desirable soil contact with the placed seed. To open a trench in the soil, a furrowing disc system, which may include an opening disc, cuts into the soil and rotates, dislocating soil as it rotates to form the trench. Once the trench is open, a seed is placed in the trench by a metering device which receives seeds from the main storage tank(s) or a row unit storage tank and typically utilizes a combination of differential air pressure, to select the seed, and gravity to place the seed in the trench at predefined intervals along the pulled path so that adjacent seeds in the row are not too close to one another. One or more closing discs carried behind the furrowing disc are pressed into the soil and also rotate as the planter is pulled to replace soil dislocated by the furrowing disc in the trench or dislocate adjacent soil into the trench to cover the seed placed in the trench with soil. Finally, a pressing wheel carried behind the closing disc(s) exerts pressure on the soil covering the seed to press the soil down onto the seed and provide good soil contact with the seed. By having multiple row units working in unison as the planter is pulled across a field, many seeds can be effectively planted in an efficient manner.
Precision farming systems are widely used with agricultural implements, including planters. In general, a precision farming system or technique uses geospatial data for a given geographic region (e.g., agricultural field, strip or other area) and carries out one or more specified tasks based at least in part on the geospatial data. The geospatial data is usually derived from a global positioning system (GPS) sensor located onboard the vehicle, and the position of the vehicle at least in part triggers various actions or tasks to occur. For example, agricultural vehicles such as planters, sprayers, fertilizer spreaders, etc, can carry out variable rate application of a product to the field based on the geospatial data. The fields can be mapped for soil type, fertility or pH levels, etc, and the GPS data for the current position of the vehicle can trigger different application rates as the vehicle traverses across the field.
What is needed is an improved precision farming arrangement that allows product to be efficiently and cost effectively applied to a field.